The baseband processing resource capacity of a 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) baseband processing unit can be defined using the following capabilities: maximum throughput, maximum number of scheduled entities (SE) per transmission timing interval (TTI), maximum number of scheduled physical resource blocks (PRBs), and maximum number of connected user equipments (UEs).
Baseband processing component can be deployed according to either a one-to-one mapping of one baseband processing component to one cell or a pooled approach mapping several cells to one baseband processing component. In the one-to-one mapping approach, a separate baseband processing component is deployed for each radio communication cell. In this approach it is relatively easy to determine the baseband processing resource capacity limits since the number of different deployments is limited and the baseband processing resource capacity in one cell is independent of the baseband processing resource capacity in other cells. The baseband processing resource capacity limits can be defined based on a number of defined constants that set the baseband processing capacity for the cell.
In the pooled approach, one baseband processing component serves a plurality of radio communication cells. An advantage of the pooled approach is that the resource capacity of the baseband processing component does not need to be dimensioned for the peak load of each of the cells. This enables a pooling gain compared to the one-to-one mapping approach where the resource capacity of the baseband processing component is dimensioned for the peak load in each cell. In the pooled approach, the resource capacity of the baseband processing component is defined by not only a number of constants per cell, but moreover by another set of constants defining the capacity per baseband processing component, i.e. the capacity for one cell is dependent on the capacity utilized in the other cells served by the baseband processing component.
The pooled approach can be difficult to manage to set constants that limit the baseband processing resource capacity allocated to the pool of radio communication cells. Different customers can use different deployments and the traffic scenarios throughout a day will vary. One customer may map few cells per baseband processing component, and another customer may map a large number of cells per baseband processing component. Sometime during a day there may be very few active UEs connected to a radio unit (e.g., eNodeB) in one of the cells. At that time the demand for scheduling entities will be low, but the demand for PRBs and throughput can be high while the few active UEs have high traffic demands.
Two alternative approaches can be considered for allocating baseband processing resource capacity based on all of the different deployments and traffic scenarios. In one approach, the allocation is performed assuming that the worst case loadings occur at the same time, i.e., the maximum number of cells served by the baseband processing component, maximum number of radio resource control (RRC) connect users, maximum number of scheduling entities, maximum throughput, and maximum number of scheduled PRBs. This approach will lead to very low capacity utilization in many deployments and traffic scenarios.
In one approach, the allocation is performed assuming different capacity limits are set dependent on traffic scenarios and deployment. This approach will lead to a large amount of capacity thresholds that will be very hard to maintain and verify.
The approaches described in the Background section could be pursued, but are not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in the Background section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in the Background section.